Sweet Pea Seeds

Sweet Pea Seeds FAQs

A traditional cottage garden favourite, sweet peas are easy to grow and beautifully scented, with delightful blooms which also make great cut flowers. They’re great for pollinators, too. To help you get your sweet pea seeds off to the very best start, here are some answers to your FAQs.

How to sow sweet peas

Sow sweet pea seeds, either in the autumn or early spring, into 9cm pots containing multipurpose compost. Use three seeds in each pot, poking each under the surface of the soil to a depth of about 1/2”. Water and place them on a bright window ledge, or put them in the conservatory or your greenhouse. Should all three seeds germinate, don’t bother to thin them; just transplant them as a clump into the garden once the soil has warmed in late April or May. If you sow seed indoors, always make sure you take a few days to acclimatise your plants to the garden, moving them inside at night until they’re hardened off over a week or so. For more information on growing these classic blooms, make sure you check out our sweet pea guide.

Can you put sweet pea seeds straight into the ground?

Sweet pea seeds can be direct sown in April and May, provided you have rich, moist, but well-drained soil and a sunny spot. However, many gardeners choose to start their plants under glass in late February or early March to give them a head start, which leads to earlier and longer flowering. When you sow sweet peas directly into the ground, they will take much longer to flower.

How do I make my sweet peas bushier?

For bushier plants, pinch out the growing tips of your seedlings, leaving three sets of leaves beneath. This will encourage your plant to put out side shoots. Sweet peas do like rich soil, so make sure you incorporate plenty of well-rotted manure or compost into the ground in the weeks before planting out. After planting, water them regularly, and feed them with tomato feed as soon as flowers appear for healthy, bushy plants and copious blooms.